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		<title>I hate the IRS &lt;https://y.st./en/weblog/2016/03-March/01.xhtml&gt;</title>
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			<h1>I hate the <abbr title="Internal Revenue Service">IRS</abbr></h1>
			<p>Day 00360: Tuesday, 2016 March 01</p>
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<p>
	I checked on that envelope sent to me the other day by the <abbr title="Internal Revenue Service">IRS</abbr>.
	I had assumed that this envelope contained my tax refund check from the federal government, but this was not the case at all.
	Instead, it was a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Employees/Understanding-Your-5071C-Letter">5071C letter</a> informing me that the <abbr title="Internal Revenue Service">IRS</abbr> was rejecting my tax return until I verified my identity.
	I was given thirty days to do so, but I had lost five days due to not having opened the letter right away.
	The letter said that I had two ways to verify my identity.
	I could either do it online at <a href="https://idverify.irs.gov/IE/e-authenticate/welcome.do">idverify.irs.gov</a> or I could do it by telephone.
	Of course, by telephone is no way to do anything, so I went with the Web option.
	After entering my information, the site said that they couldn&apos;t verify my identity online.
	My guess is that the reason that they are demanding this verification and the reason that they are rejecting my attempt to comply is one and the same.
	They are probably hating on me for using <abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr> or for not providing a telephone number.
	There is no law requiring that I have telephone service though, so they cannot demand that of me.
	Furthermore, they are not providing any reason for the rejection, so I cannot just assume that their hatred of <abbr title="The Onion Router">Tor</abbr> and privacy is the issue.
	I couldn&apos;t find an appropriate way to contact them about the issue.
	I ended up using a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/uac/Navigate-IRSgov">questions and comments form</a> to post this:
</p>
<blockquote><p>
	I have received a 5071C letter asking me to verify my identity, either online or by telephone.
	However, the online form says that I cannot verify online and does not give me a reason why not.
	I do not have telephone service, so verification by telephone is not possible.
	What do you want me to do?
</p></blockquote>
<p>
	I thought about going over to the community college for help tomorrow.
	I saw some mention of a tax help service there.
	I quickly dismissed the idea though, realizing that the school would probably take the easy way out, having me use their telephone to perform the call.
	It wasn&apos;t until a bit later that it hit me: it&apos;s okay if I call from the school.
	It&apos;s suboptimal to be stuck using a telephone at all, as it validates dependency on the telephone number system.
	However, it&apos;s not calling from a number belonging to me, so it has nothing to do with my identity, and it&apos;s calling from a number that is semi-public.
	They can lock down what city I&apos;m in, but cannot lock that number down as being me.
	I&apos;ll provide them the information that they ask for, but I will not have my identity locked to an idiotic telephone number.
	Furthermore, it would show that I am attempting to comply with their ridiculous demands.
	I am not fighting them, I simply do not have telephone service.
	I will not go tomorrow though.
	the form that I filled out said to wait 48 hours for a response, so that&apos;s just what I&apos;ll do.
	After that, I&apos;ll go over to the school.
</p>
<p>
	My mother has requested that I attempt to contact the garbage company and the cable company that service our old residence tomorrow and have them email her all her past bills from 2008 January up through now.
	I tried to work on that tonight, but as I was logging into the cable company website, they took it down for maintenance.
	I was able to reach the garbage company website, but they don&apos;t seem to have an online interface for speaking with them or managing your account.
	I submitted a request through their asyncronous contact form, but I don&apos;t know how quickly that they will respond.
</p>
<p>
	I tried to get help with cjdns today, and I was told to install <a href="apt:nodejs-dev">nodejs-dev</a> and <a href="apt:nodejs-legacy">nodejs-legacy</a>.
	This alleviated part of the problem, and allowed me to move on past the initial snag, but there seemed to be another snag.
	I later went back to try again, and ran into the initial snag once more.
	I might try further tomorrow.
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